1/11/1918 Maintaining the pressure on the Western Front

Allied efforts are continuing on the Western Front, notwithstanding all this talk of an imminent armistice. In the Argonne the Americans are still plugging away. Contrary to Pershing‘s wishes, the fighting here has turned into an attritional meat-grinder, but with more US troops arriving in France every day this plays to American strengths. Although losses have been heavy, the Americans have pushed the Germans back some 15 kilometres and are now more or less out of the bleak forest. Their French allies on the left, who are more experienced and may also be fighting in easier terrain, have made even more progress. Now the French and Americans seek to press on towards Sedan, a rail hub whose capture will make the whole German position in France and Belgium untenable.

Further to the north, British and Canadian forces are also pressing the Germans. In concert with the Belgians…